The Wolves Surrounding: A Biblical View of Health Care Reform

by Rick Anderson
May 1st, 2003

Let's face it: the need to reform health care in America is a ripe albatross around our collective necks. It's a stinker of an issue that gets worse with time and is not going away. For almost eight years now, ever since Bill and Hillary Clinton tried—and failed—to overhaul the health care system with so many government regulations that the term "government-run healthcare" was coined and then became that dirty word that helped lose the Democrats control of Congress in the days of Newt Gingrich, the albatross hasn't gotten any fresher.

Consider these US News and World Report statistics: for private sector employees, medical insurance prices jumped 12.2% between 2000 and 2001, another 8.1% in 2002. And it's projected to go up another 13.6% this year (David Gergen, "The Elephant in the Room," US News and World Report, pg. 72, vol. 133, #22, D9, 2002). In 2001, the government cut doctor reimbursements for Medicare—and cut them again the following year. One-fifth of the doctors surveyed in CA said that they planned to drop Medicare patients because of these cuts (ibid). And the same is happening in other states. Given the present state of health care, it isn't so much the threat of domestic terrorism or the situation with Iraq that has so many of us concerned; rather, it's "what happens if my loved one gets sick, and I'm wiped out financially?"

When asking what Scripture can tell us about reforming health care in this country, we'd do well to approach the whole issue with four presuppositions that should govern and serve as lenses through which we view what the Bible says about this topic; in fact, what it says on any topic that concerns the welfare of God's people. These presuppositions are:

1. That "the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequences may be deduced from Scripture" (Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter I, "Of the Holy Scripture" par. 6). In other words, though the Bible doesn't directly deal with health care reform, we're able to deduce a course of action by "good and necessary consequences" (II Tim. 3:15-17).

    

2. That the church is a separated covenant community (II Cor. 6:17). More precisely, it is a government separate from the world (Isa. 9:6,7) with its own ethics and mores, its own courts (sessions, presbyteries, etc.), and its own care-taking and communal responsibilities (I Cor. 5:12,13). This directly impacts the way we should think about health care coverage.

    

3. Yet at the same time, the church is also the "salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" (Mt. 5:13,14); meaning that God's covenant community is not only the preservative for the world-at-large, but that it is also the model and exemplar for the unchurched to emulate and envy. One of its purposes is to "provoke to jealousy" others, so that they will seek God (Rom. 11:11; Deut. 4:7). If society-at-large is to change for the better, especially in matters of health care, then it needs to first see something winsome in the way God's people are doing things. We can already see some of this in the effect that the home-schooling movement is having on this country. Why not also with health care?

    

4. That Christ's witness to the world occurs through the church, (Eph. 3:10) and that this witness is not to be compartmentalized or relegated to mere gospel-sharing or to "churchy" functions, but is to be holistic, broad-based, encompassing every aspect of God's creation (Mt. 28:20; II Cor. 10:5); such as art, government, law, entertainment, the workplace as well as health care.

This all has relevance to how we formulate a biblical view of health care reform, since the Bible doesn't provide us with a detailed paradigm on this. But what it does do is provide us with a detailed paradigm of covenant community. Three New Testament passages are instructive for us. I Corinthians 5:12 - 6:6

In this passage, St. Paul tells the church that they have a responsibility to make judgments on legal affairs among themselves; on issues that concern their own welfare, not the world's. He speaks of the covenant community's jurisdictional responsibility as being separate from that of the world's jurisdiction. Some Amish and Mennonite communities practice this, as do certain church governing boards such as Presbyterian sessions. Similarly, health care policy issues in a given plan should be voted on and governed by the recipients of that coverage, ideally. But try telling that the governing board of your HMO, insurance company, or medical plan! My point? Matters of health care are no less important than legal matters, and should be no less within the jurisdiction of the church. James 5:13-16

This passage is a proof-text showing that health care is primarily a church government jurisdiction, despite the sacerdotal image that so many in the medical profession try hard to portray. Our American culture reveres doctors too highly. Doctors are skilled professionals worthy of respect, but they are not oracles of diagnosis and prognosis. Notice how the passage links physical illness to spiritual illness and links spiritual wholeness to a well-grounded church support group of praying people. Hospital staff and doctors who denigrate this dimension should be avoided. And yet this is by-and-large the very attitude of the entire American medical profession. The New Testament in several places calls the believer's body the "temple" of the Holy Spirit. In the eyes of God, the body is sacred. And there are warnings against "defiling the temple of God" (I Cor. 3:17), warnings that too often are interpreted by us to simply mean "don't abuse yourself with sexual sin, tobacco, or excess of alcohol." But if it's wrong to allow that kind of abuse, then surely it's wrong to allow an HMO or a medical professional with worldly values and a self-seeking eye on the "bottom line" to write prescriptions, prescribe care, recommend surgery, or reassign patients to other professionals arbitrarily. Therefore, Christians should have a medical plan that allows them in consultation with their pastors to select from a pool of doctors who think biblically. We are not simply mounds of flesh to be treated by chemicals, antibodies, and surgery; or harvested by certain health care executives warring with their industry competitors for a bigger slice of the "market." Rather, we are responsible to God for how we treat these temples of ours. Acts 4:32-34

Again, our secularized managed care system over-emphasizes the role of the doctor—as well as that of a remote, profit-driven health insurance industry. On the other hand, the Lord's "managed care system" prioritizes the role of the sharing and praying community in meeting individual needs, health-related or otherwise.

Acts 4:32-34 shows a particular instance of this. Notice that the sharing was voluntary (Acts 5:4), that it recognized that individual needs were a community concern, that it was not remote and institutionalized. It was personalized. True, this passage doesn't directly deal with the meeting of health needs in the covenant community, but the principle is the same. A strong case can be made from Scripture to say that God majors on using the prayers, the visits, the personal encouragement as well as the voluntary funds of believers as ways to heal the sick. In short—how does God treat illness? Answer: He does it holistically—body, soul and spirit; in recognition of the holistic effect of indwelling sin as well as the communal dependency of individual human beings. But try talking this way to most health care professionals with their myopic, truncated, secularized view of both Man and (thus by consequence) the illnesses that affect Man, and they'll look back at you as if you were from Mars.

The health care problems in this country, especially as they impact Christians, are too numerous and detailed to mention, but here are four major ones:

1. Believers are yoked together with unbelievers in the same health care recipient/patient care pool.

   II Cor. 6:17 warns against being "yoked together" in close relationships of common interest. Marriage is one example. But the case could be made as well for group health care. Look at it this way (for a practical example): Godly people tend to live godly lifestyles. Godly lifestyles are easier on the body. Yet the current arrangement "yokes" them with those living godless lifestyles. Godless lifestyles are harder on the body, costing more money. Result? Costs like co-payments, premiums, and deductibles all go up, even for the innocent.

    

2. Believers are accepting advice from doctors who don't think biblically, especially doctors in the psychotherapy fields.

   Psychotherapy—literally "soul-healing"—presumes to alter the thoughts, change the behavior, and diagnose and treat guilt experience in patients—all on a naturalistic, philosophically agnostic base. Pharmaceuticals and drug companies provide "mental health" doctors a strong profit incentive to prescribe drugs as a standard course of treatment. Where else but with psychotherapy has the Christian pastor so willingly relinquished his shepherd's calling and stepped aside so that laymen can give the patient "pastoral" advice?

    

3. God's people are being ravaged by health care "wolves" (HMO's, health insurance companies) which compete with each other for a bigger share of their substance in a great plundering of the flock; as well as to a growing, self-perpetuating bureaucracy of governmental and healthcare professionals. All this continues to drive up costs.

    

4. God's people have acquiesced to the government and the health care industry deciding matters for them. More governance and less personal responsibility has become the trend with buyers of medical packages. Though deductibles are useful in forcing consumers to take responsibilities, the existing flaws in the system have only been enlarged by tax incentives for medical benefits.

A Step in the Right Direction?

Non-insurance Christian health care programs do exist, and may represent a trend for the future of health care by way of example to our society-at-large. Like so many Christian home-schooling associations, these programs are grassroots movements that present a refreshing alternative to what's out there now. One such group is Medi-Share—a nonprofit ministry of the Christian Care Ministry of the American Evangelical Association. Founded in 1994 by John Reinhold, a former insurance executive and evangelical Christian, Medi-Share's vision began as simply the efforts of a group of concerned Christians to "pass the hat" through the mails, collecting money for friends who had unaffordable health care expenses. Medi-Share members share their medical bills. The ministry itself does not pay, nor guarantee bill payment; instead, it acts as a clearinghouse for the participating Christian community and facilitates the processing of those payments. It also mobilizes members to pray for one another's healthcare expenses. Members vote annually on whether or not expand medical needs, change the ministry guidelines, or change deductibles. Medical bills are paid by health providers submitting an individual's medical bills to the Medi-Share Processing Center where they are processed for eligibility and assigned for specific members to share. These funds are then sent directly the medical providers.

According to Jon Reinhold, the majority of applicants accepted by Christian Care Ministries (CCM oversees Medi-Share) discover that they are saving between 50% to 70% over and above their previous health care budget, and are pocketing between $2000 and $3000 more per year than before.

Medi-Share is one example of how communities in covenant relationship with themselves and with God are recovering the biblical mandate to take care of their own and to help recover the original vision of the Apostolic Church.

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